November 05, 2013

Jerry Jones: DeMarcus Ware is ready

When the original report came out that DeMarcus Ware would be out four weeks, he vowed to come back sooner. He called himself a fast healer.

It appears he might miss only three games, returning this week against New Orleans.

"I’m going to call it making it an investment in the future and the latter part of the season to be conservative on how fast we put him out there," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on his weekly radio show on KRLD-FM. "A lot of this soft tissue injury, these muscle pulls, …there’s a decision. It’s sensitive but the player can still play, but there’s risk that he could re-injure it. That’s the key. It’s when you have to make that ambiguous decision almost, but you have to make a tough decision as to when to really put the stress on the muscle or on the injury situation. I think he’s ready."

Ware played in 134 consecutive games before injuring his quadriceps against the Redskins. He missed games against Philadelphia, Detroit and Minnesota, the first games he's ever sat out in his career.

Jones' news on receiver Miles Austin and cornerback Morris Claiborne was not as encouraging. Austin has missed four games this season with a hamstring injury. Claiborne was expected to miss two games, returning after the team's bye week, after injuring his hamstring against the Lions.

"They did some good work yesterday," Jones said of Austin and Claiborne. "We’ll see what they do today. I can’t really say whether they’ll be on the field against New Orleans or not."

The Cowboys have their bye next week, which could play into decisions regarding injured players' availability for this week. Sitting out this week would give injured players two extra weeks to heal for the stretch run.